Stuff to do!

Howdy all, thankfully a lot has been happening lately! Sunday I didn’t do much, just did some drawings of local flora and fauna.  Monday, again, I didn’t do too much, but I did see an iguana going to the bathroom in a tree, all of which landed on the cabin next to mine.  Also, I saw a lineated woodpecker, which is very similar to our pileated woodpecker.

           

            Tuesday I got woken up at 9am ( I didn’t fall asleep until 3am) by Eugenia, the woman who is in charge of the environmental education program here, saying that they were leaving for a meet with the directors of the schools and she invited me to come.  So I showered real quick and went with her and another person.  The meeting was cool, Eugenia just gave a quick presentation about the results from last year’s program, using my excel graphs, and made dates with the schools for when they are going to come.  The first school doesn’t come to Tirimbina until March 21, so I’m free to do whatever until then.  So Eugenia said that she would talk to the other programs to see if they needed an extra volunteer for a couple of weeks.

           

            In the meantime, on Tuesday, I volunteered to help two butterfly researchers mash up brown bananas with my hands to make bait for butterflies.  I got to talking to them, and ended up offering my services to one of them, Laura, for today.  So I got up at 7 and helped her carry stuff to make butterfly traps out into the rainforest.  All morning, until 1, we were out on trails putting up butterfly traps.  We saw lots of cool butterflies (go figure), a mot mot, a potoo, which is a really cool bird that looks like the extension of a branch, dendrobatis pumillio, and some cool bugs.  We went out again after lunch, but for a shorter time, and just to drop off the rest of the traps.  When I got back, I enjoyed a nice, cold beer in my hammock. I’m going to help her tomorrow too, and we are going to set up the traps we dropped off, and hopefully end up baiting them in the afternoon.  Then, this weekend, I think I am going to Monteverde with some of the Ball State students. 

            Next week I will be working with different people on butterfly stuff, collecting larva and whatnot.  So yay for keeping busy!!